Tag Archives: Small Times Magazine

May 4, 2006 – Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq:CBMX)(Nasdaq:ACTG) announced that its CombiMatrix group will collaborate with the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory influenza testing. It’s part of an effort to monitor the Pacific Flyway to determine if the seasonal migration of birds will bring the highly pathogenic Eurasian strain of Avian Influenza into North America and the United States.

The Pacific Flyway includes Alaska, Western Canada and the West Coast of the United States including Washington State.

CombiMatrix representatives say its influenza monitoring system has shown in laboratory tests that it can confirm and type the infection in four hours instead of a week, which is what many other tests take. The company is participating in this study to try and validate laboratory test results in a similar timeframe in the field.

May 3, 2006 – The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Trade, Tourism, and Economic Development has announced that it will hold a hearing Thursday on the topic of promoting economic development opportunities through nano commercialization.

The hearing is scheduled to examine economic development efforts that have a strong nanotech focus. It will investigate how commercialization of nanotechnology could expedite the application of nanotechnology to more products and how it could generate better jobs and products. It will also examine potential economic impacts that nanoscience commercialization will have on business promotion in communities.

Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) will preside. The scheduled witnesses are Sean Murdock, executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance; Skip Rung, president and executive director of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute; Philip Boudjouk, vice president for research, creative activities and technology transfer at North Dakota State University; David Rejeski, director of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; and Jerry Gwaltney, city manager for the city of Danville, Va.

The hearing is scheduled to be held at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.

May 3, 2006 – Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (ALTI), a supplier of advanced ceramic nanomaterials, announced it has entered into a collaborative research, license and commercialization agreement with the Elanco Animal Health Division of Eli Lilly and Co. The agreement provides Elanco with exclusive rights to develop animal health products using Altairnano’s nanotechnology-based products.

The agreement establishes the framework under which Altairnano and Elanco may commercialize animal health products using Altairnano technology.

May 3, 2006 – Sensatex, a developer of integrated smart textile systems, announced the beta launch of its SmartShirt System. The system makes it possible to remotely monitor a wearer’s movement, heart rate, and respiration rate in real-time through a conductive fiber grid that is seamlessly knit into the material of the fully washable shirt.

“Following a series of successful tests with first responders and the subsequent development of a seamless knit shirt integrating a conductive fiber system to wirelessly carry physiological signals from the body, Sensatex is ready to begin research and reliability studies using the SmartShirt System in a broad range of applications,” said Chief Executive Officer Robert Kalik in a written statement.

Possible uses include home health monitoring for the elderly, observing outpatients in post-operative and chronic illness situations, training support for athletes, remote monitoring for first responders, hazard materials workers and soldiers in the field, and watching professional truck drivers’ vital signs to alert them of fatigue.

Field testing of the SmartShirt System is planned for later this year. Sensatex is also testing a SmartBra that would employ the same system to remotely monitor vital signs.

Early research for the SmartShirt System was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Technical Support Working Group.

May 2, 2006 — IBM researchers say they’ve demonstrated a new nanoscale method that quickly separates very small numbers of molecules and delivers them precisely onto surfaces with exact control. IBM says that when fully developed, the new technique has the potential to improve such diverse applications as medical lab tests and future nanoelectronic circuit manufacturing.

The method is based on the atomic force microscope (AFM), an instrument invented by an IBM Nobel Laureate 20 years ago that performs nanoscale operations using a tiny cantilever with a cone-shaped tip at its end. When an electrical field is applied to the tip, molecules will slide up or down its surface at characteristic speeds. By modifying the tip’s surface and varying the strength and duration of the electric field, different molecular species can be separated from each other within a few milliseconds, considerably faster than today’s methods.

The IBM scientists anticipate that the method could someday be used in at least two different applications. The method may speed up a wide variety of molecular analysis and genetic applications — from DNA fingerprinting to routine blood tests. It also has potential for delivering molecules onto a surface with great precision, which may be useful in creating future molecular electronic circuits or lithography features for more conventional nanoelectronics.

May 2, 2006 – Veeco Instruments Inc. (VECO) announced that it has received several multi-unit orders for its GaNzilla II MOCVD (metal organic chemical vapor deposition) system from several key Taiwanese manufacturers of high-brightness light emitting diodes. Customers which have placed multi-unit orders during the first quarter of 2006 include Huga Optotech Inc., Highlink Technology Corp. and Epitech Technology Corp.

In addition to these multi-unit orders for new GaNzilla IIs, Veeco says it has sold several GaNzilla I reactor upgrade kits which allow its customers to significantly increase the performance of their installed base.

May 2, 2006 — DALSA Corporation, an international semiconductor and electronics company, announced that it has established a new business unit within its digital imaging group. DALSA Asia-Pacific will focus and participate in those emerging markets.

DALSA Asia-Pacific will operate as a sales, support, and marketing unit that will work with the distributors in the Asia-Pacific region to promote the company’s products. This new business unit will be headed by Keith Reuben as its President, and will report directly to the CEO, Savvas Chamberlain.

May 2, 2006 – AMSOIL unveiled its new line of universal air induction filters, designed to replace stock oil wetted gauze or foam conical filters. AMSOIL says its Ea air induction filters offer superior efficiency, excellent airflow and are cleanable.

Like other filter products in the AMSOIL Ea line, the new filters utilize nanofiber technology and were developed through partnerships with global filtration leaders.

May 2, 2006 – Harris & Harris Group Inc. announced that it led a $7.5 million Series B round of financing of privately held Innovalight, Inc., of Santa Clara, California. The Series B financing included Apax Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds and Triton Ventures.

Innovalight is developing a new era of ultra low-cost, high-performance renewable energy products, by harnessing the yet untapped powerful quantum effects of silicon nanotechnology.

Harris & Harris Group is a publicly traded venture capital company that now makes initial investments exclusively in tiny technology, including nanotechnology, microsystems and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The Company’s last 29 initial private equity investments have been in tiny technology-enabled companies.